I found myself around him a lot. So much for doing my best to stay away from him. For some reason, all I remembered was the pain he was in, wanting so badly to reject me... But why? It couldn't be that he really hated me. He'd have to know me enough for that. " I need to go get info on someone. You should wait here until I come back." After work, I saw him also leaving. I tried to stop and turn, but he sensed that I was there. From that point on, I was involuntarily involved. He needed to gain information on someone else. Who it was, not much of my business. But something about it bugged him and some part of me didn't like it at all.

" Alright, I'm headed there now." He murmured.

" I'm coming." In response, he only shrugged. He didn't really care. I walked with him 12 blocks there. I saw a cafe and was definitely in the mood for a lemonade..." Hey, I'm gonna get something to drink." He simply nodded and stayed, to my dismay. The walls were a beautiful pale blue with beige and brown decor around. I noticed a small white and red cat with it's hand up. I've seen these a few times around Japan, but I never really ever stopped to look at it. There was a talisman of sorts, written in Chinese. I couldn't read it though. " Iced lemonade... with lavender? Do you guys have lavender syrup? And can that be medium sized?"

" There you go." The man behind the register said. He had rung it up already, so I payed quickly and waited for my drink. I waited barely a minute before my order was called. I quickly grabbed my order and walked back outside. It was actually a bit warm today.

As I exited the quaint little place, I noticed two girls and a smiling Alistair. They were still talking and they had exchanged numbers. Ugh, I groaned internally. I kept walking, avoiding them completely. We had somewhere to be and if I had to go by myself that would be that.

I was already 2 blocks away when he caught back up with me. He simply looked at me and chuckled devilishly. I looked away. " You seem gloomy." He prodded.

I kept my lips sealed. Why did I feel... Upset? He could talk to whoever, we weren't really together or anything like that... So why was I so flustered and embarrassed? I continued on in silence, slightly slowing down so that he lead the way instead.

Jealousy.

He didn't press the issue and I didn't say anything.
.
.
.
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I stood outside, not coming in the building. I saw it best to only involve myself but so much with him and his ordeals. My stomach rumbled loudly. I walked a few blocks up and took a shortcut to another main street. " Come here, cutie!" A voice from behind me called. Maybe if I just ignored him and kept moving forward, they'd lose sight of me and leave me alone. My demolitionist powers didn't work against humans, so that also put me below these men in terms of sheer strength. One of them grabbed my wrist from behind. " Stop!" I yelled, flailing my legs and beating my fists against his arms. But the look in his eyes told me he had no intention of stopping at all. I took a deep chomp out of his upper arm and made sure he bled. I tried to punch him, but I was off by a split second and simply grazed his cheek. Someone had come up behind me and pressed something to my face that made me dizzy. I shook him off, but by then, I was already moving much slower than before. I felt so tired and so weak, but I managed to push off the guy behind me by elbowing him in the chest. But he easily regained control of me, and the first man punched me straight across the face. I was slung over someone's shoulder like a sad, wet rag, most likely to be used for their vile needs. Everything was slowly getting more and more blurry, making it so that the difference between keeping my eyes open and shutting them were slim as I was carried away.

.

.

.

" Wake up." A stern voice called. My eyes opened and I was so light headed. My body felt weightless yet heavy. " Can you stand?"

" No." I could barely make out a whisper. My vision swam as Alistair carried me to the car. " You useless idiot. How did you come so fucking close to getting kidnapped?" The chains on his neck glowed but didn't constrict. " I don't know." I breathed, coming in and out of consciousness.

" Your face is swollen." He noted, an unimpressed look engraved in his features. " Thank... You." I whispered softly.

Walking with me in his arms, he grumbled. " You owe me."

" Yes....." I whispered agreeing. He didn't expect that and I could tell. He said nothing in return and simply carried me where he needed to place me. He put me in a seatbelt and got in the driver's.

" Stop going off on your own! If you were going to wander this area you could've told someone." He sighed, exasperated. " Who could I have called? Who, Alistair? Everyone's slowly giving up on me, you can't be that blind, can you?" I wiped away my tears. " You could have called me. I would've come no matter what." He shot back, . My shaking hands balled into angry fists " Stop saying that we're nobody to each other than going and acting like we're together then! Maybe I would've called you for help if you weren't always so cruel to me!" I yelled, my voice raspy... I felt as though I was running out of breath.

Sad tears kept falling out of my eyes and and down my face. My hands shook too much to wipe them, so I would wait for them to dry. I could feel my breaths slip away sentence by sentence, needing to break for air at how dizzy I felt and disoriented. " All you ever do is belittle me and call me names... And I'm so sick of it! Stopping wasting time helping me; if you hate me so much then just leave!"

All I could feel was the pain of my cousin's mother telling me that my father simply left. Not really telling me anything. He just... Left. At least he did something about not loving me. I'm glad in some ways that he left me. I wouldn't need to deal with him and be even more emotionally broken if he were in my life.

But Alistair insisted on making my life miserable by staying. If he would just get out and stay out of my life I could suffer in peace. I could be sad and never need to hide it. But it was always a fight with Alistair. He was slowly making me hate him more and more and I had to give him some credit, because it was working. His eyes dropped to his lap.

He silently drove me home. I thought I'd be happy if he shut up but... This silence between us hurt even worse. He let me leave and go home myself. He had bothered me enough today.